Question

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 50 mm. One leg of the right triangle is 30 mm. What is the length of the other leg? (4 points)

Select one:
a. 20 mm
b. 30 mm
c. 40 mm
d. 60 mm

Answer 1

Use the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2+b^2=c^2). Plug in the values in the equation. The hypotenuse is always c, so put 50^2 as your hypotenuse. Proceed to put 30^2 as any leg. Now, the equation is a^2+30^2=50^2. In order to isolate a, you must use the reverse of PEMDAS. 50^2-30^2=a^2. This equates to 2500–900, which equals 1600. a^2=1600. Now, you must find the square root of 1600 to isolate a. The square root of 1600 is 40, so a=40.
The answer is c.

Answer 2

C. 40mm

Explanation:

To solve for leg a:

Since the hypotenuse is 50mm and leg a is 30mm we can use the following formula below.

a =
`√(c^2-b^2)`

`c^(2)` will be
`50^(2)` because c = hypotenuse

`b^(2)` will be
`30^(2)` because b = leg b

Now that we have replaced our variables we can answer the equation:

`a =√(50^2-30^2)`

50 × 50 = 2500

30 × 30 = 900

Now we subtract:

`a = √(2500-900)`

`a = √(1600)`

square root of 1600 = 40

a = 40